Friday, May 15, 2009

Finally, this week is a bit slimmer than some. But have fun! I did! Actually, turns out I found a good bit. Enjoy, amigos.

Let's start on a happy note. You know, before we get to Obama and all. I like to say that this site has readers on all the continents except (so far) Antarctica, though we don't hear from all of them. It's always fun to get a word from an unexpected location, so this week I was delighted to get an email from regular reader Linda Chan, from Iceland. Lynda has a really fun web site called Little House on the Fjord, and I encourage you to click around. She has a rascally-good sense of humor. Particularly check out Things Learned by Raising Boys. Plus, I think her It Came from the Kitchen page rivals Phil's Strange things I have eaten page. Enjoy!

On the other hand, Brit reader Pastor Gary Benfold gives us another peek at where we're heading, thanks to Britain, where government-funded functionaries call those who see homosexuality as immoral "retarded homophobes." Nice.

Well, lookie here! A Star Trek quiz! They're interesting and well-documented (though #3 is painful). I got enough of them wrong to feel like I still might have a life, but enough of them right to make that a bit iffy.

Republicans may pay the price for Bush's communication disinterest for a long, long time. I've argued several times that W made a crucial miscalculation. He focused on his job and being noble and above-it-all — in other words, the consummate anti-Clinton — thus allowing domestic enemies to frame and control the game. W thought doing well would win out over image. He was wrong. Thus people still imagine that Clinton was a great president, and Bush a bad one. What Bush didn't see is that this would hurt his party and thus the country.

HSAT, this makes a good point — though we see now that W's failure to defend himself has put the country at risk.

Some very clever images — but be warned: some are also disturbing, and one in particularly poor taste.

Most of the "dumbest generation" examples seem to be of the "darn kids and their rock music, get off my lawn" variety. I'm reminded of several very insightful things that Douglas Adams wrote on the topic... but I'd have to google them to remember. (j/k)

Even allowing, say, 20% for intergenerational grousing, the "rising" generation is still pretty worthless. Fortunately I have no children that I am aware of (forgive that obligatory "sailor's caveat") but my brothers do and I can only say, after 20 years of observation, "misereatur nostri omnipotens deus!"

I heard Hugh Hewitt's interview with Meg Whitman last night. Hugh is very adamant that one of the problems the Republicans have is not that their values, ideals, etc. are not outdated but that many party members have and continue to refuse to use technology to communicate those ideals. So the Republicans allow others to define them.

I happen to agree. I wouldn't expect my daughter to merely follow my example without also communicating to her the principles behind a certain action.

You'd have to convince the Republicans to close down and restart under a new name. Good luck with that. The people who have been meeting to "rebrand" the image aren't the leaders we really want involved in the process at all. Check out the first 10 minutes of the 5/14 recording of the Mark levin Show. Michael Berry, a local radio talk show host here in Houston, was subbing for Levin. He did a great little ditty on how Republicans have been painted as the Archie Bunkers of our time.

We really have an uphill battle. Many people think that because they exist, they deserve things. Apparently they think these things come like manna from heaven and that old rich white men run around hogging everything for themselves so nobody else can have any.

Well, I disagree on a few things. I don't think President Bush is to blame even if he didn't defend himself like he should. Obama won because of the mortgage industry financial meltdown (not the fault of President Bush).

Let's not forget that 60 million people voted for McWhatIsName and Palin. That's no chump change.

The fact is enough Americans vote on their pocket books. They could care less on voting for principle. I'm convinced had not the financial meltdown occurred we would have a President McCain.

If the economy doesn't improve by 2012, Obama will lose. Plain and simple. I just hope Palin is there to compete with Obama and win the election. By Obama's own admission, things will get worse before they get better. By his own admission, he says that if we continue to spend like he plans on spending, things will get worse.

We just need to wait for things to get real bad as President Obama says they will, and we'll have a new President.

The re-branding has begun in earnest - and leaning to the left. Cindy McCain was on Greta last night talking about the Republicans having a "Big Tent" and how "inclusive" the party is. Daughter Meghan has also been making the rounds, appearing on The View and Larry King."I consider myself a progressive Republican. I am liberal on social issues. I think the party is at a place that social issues shouldn't define the party....I was raised an open-minded Christian - to not pass judgment.....I am personally pro-life, but it is not my place to judge somebody who is pro-choice. It is not my place to judge somebody in what they do with their body."She attributes the differences on social issues solely to the generation gap. It's only the old folks with the outdated social mores holding the party back. Her postmodern mind doesn't seem to allow for the possible of deeply held religions and ideological differences based on truth.

That's why I will work for individual candidates, but I will never pledge my allegiance to a party.

Very interesting mix of items. However, I don't much like your the "Government Employees at Work" poster. Being the wife of an exceptionally hard-working government (DoD) employee, maybe I'm a little sensitive. Also, my Dad was a legislator for 16 years in a Midwest state so I tire of the "all politicians are crooks and liars" schtick. Just imagine how paranoid I'd be if my Mom was a postal worker /sarcasm/

My thanks to Phil for the inspiration for "It Came from the Kitchen"! When I was making up my website, and thinking of things to put in it, I remembered his culinary adventures, and look what popped out of the oven :)